Five (Immediately) Memorable Shows

By Gaëtan L. Charlebois 
As the end of the year approaches it's a wise idea to look back without anger; it helps brace one for what may come in the new year. In that spirit I'm offering a list I invite you to extend with your own "immediately" memorable productions in Montreal English-language theatre.

Woyzeck, Centaur, 1974 
Felix Mirbt and Jean Herbiet's production of the Büchner play was the first performance for which I got in people's faces. I was a first year acting student at John Abbott College and actually did something about getting people to see it: I called Pam Turpin (with whom I later worked in the PR department at Centaur) and asked her if I could get a group discount for other students. She went one better and got us a handful of free tickets. I went for a second time and was hypnotized all over again by this heart-breaking story of a weak man. Decades later, when I saw the exceptional TNM production of the Berg opera based on the play, my mind was still flooded by images of that wondrous Centaur production. (Mirbt/Herbiet followed up with a Dream Play which was nearly as haunting.)

Mosquito Man, 1992
I had gone through an endless drought writing for The Mirror—one hideous production after another—when along came Bruce Smith's moving little play about losers in a bar, one of whom was played—with extreme maturity—by a young Donovan Reiter. They saved my life as a scribe. 





Deus Meus, SIN 4, 1995 (?)
I have Googled my fingers off trying to find the date and more solid information about this wondrous production but there is hardly a trace of it in cyberspace; however, the mark it left in my memory is indelible. Twining the Gay world and Catholicism, as it did, it was magic born of no money at all but of huge imaginations. Joseph Khiatta led the show and Reiter, again, was memorable. Of all the works I have seen with gay content—some considerably more explicit—this was the most erotically charged.

Paradise by the River, premiere, 1998
This is the work that revealed the genius of Vittorio Rossi to me. I knew he was a good writer, but this comfirmed he was a great one. A simple yet textured story told by a master.

Henry. Octobre. 1970., Gravy Bath, 2002
Ah! Gravy Bath—you are missed. This was Shakespeare's Henry V, but not. It was the October Crisis, but not. And in the strangest way, it illuminated both the Shakespeare and the historical event. This was only one of a slew of brave and beloved productions by this young company but it represented all of them at the height of their powers, especially the the two who adapted the Shakespeare: Anthony Palermo and Matthew Tiffen (who also directed).

(As I was writing this I remembered other productions I loved, of course; but now it's time to share yours with me.)